


a cold wind, a quiet sea

by vampkomori



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friendship, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reincarnation, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-15 03:55:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28557219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vampkomori/pseuds/vampkomori
Summary: Making your way towards the water, you look down and find a face that is not yours. Hair that is definitely not the shade you remember. Eyes that are nothing like your own.All right, well, it seems that you are not you, but someone else that is not you. And that someone happens to be called 'Sora' by these other two kids on this island.
Relationships: Kairi & Riku & Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Kudos: 6





	a cold wind, a quiet sea

  
  


_...I’m a brand-new heart…_

The island was completely silent save for the rippling ocean waves which seemed almost deafening in the dead of the night. A body clad in white lay amongst the palm trees, while a dark figure loomed nearby. 

_Join your heart with mine…_

An arm suddenly shot up and reached towards the sky, and a sword-like object appeared in its hand. The dark figure glanced back at the white-clothed boy, their features hidden, but waiting expectantly. 

_Now our hearts have touched…_

A bright, blinding glow surrounded the mysterious blade, and a single beam of light shot up into the night sky. As the beam vanished and a thousand brilliant sparks floated towards the ground, the boy’s eyes slowly opened. 

_It’s time to wake up now._

  
  


○○○

Naps, despite their cozy and comfortable allure, almost always end up making you feel worse than before. You were under the impression that naps were supposed to leave you feeling more energized, and not less. Despite your experiences with naps thus far, you always end up trying anyway, and every single time you realize ‘ _Ah, no, I feel worse._ ’ 

Not to mention that it is insanely disorientating. Where am I even? Falling asleep in random places is not something you made a habit out of. If anything, the entire appeal of naps is that you’d get to return to your bed in the middle of the day, even if only for a short time. But this isn’t your bed, your bed isn't this… coarse. And you always kept your blinds shut, why is it so bright? ' _Am I lying on… sand?_ '

“Sora, you lazypants! You’re gonna get sunburnt again if you keep lying there.”

Opening your eyes very slowly, you notice that there is a giant ocean spanning out over the horizon in front of you. You don't remember there being a beach in the middle of your city, or even leaving the city to go to said beach. But before you could think about it any further, a voice rings out again.

“Hello to you too, sleepyhead!”

You mumble out a quick ‘hello’ in return when you realize that a small girl is looking down at you. She has red hair and an irritated expression on her face, which means she’s most likely displeased with you. That’s great. Five minutes into realizing you somehow ended up falling asleep at a beach and someone’s already pissed at you.

Still, you might as well apologize to her and then figure out how the hell you ended up at a beach. Maybe this is her napping spot, and your inconsiderate and tired past-self took it without thinking. Sounds about right. “Sorry,” you grumble. “I was tired.”

Her piercing eyes never once leave you, and it almost seems like she’s analyzing your every move, which makes you shift uncomfortably under her gaze. Before you can say anything else, she perks up and goes to grab your arm. “All right, but we’ve been waiting for you at the shack, so come on!”

You let yourself be dragged to the so-called shack by the little girl, still in a bit of a haze from your nap. As she’s tugging at your arm you notice that it’s… significantly smaller than you remember. Actually, it almost seems like you’re about the same height as the girl, since she seems to be tugging you along no problem. Either you somehow shrunk to the size of a ten year old in your sudden beach-travelling craze, or you’re still asleep. Considering how you definitely seem to feel the heat of the sun on your skin and the hot sand beneath your feet, you’re gonna take a guess and say you’re probably awake. Which makes a _mirror_ the highest priority for you, right after your rendez-vous at this shack. 

As the two of you go through a wooden arch, the girl yells out, “Riku, I got him!”

“Took you long enough,” ‘Riku’ replies. 

The girl whose name you still don't know lets go of your arm and walks over to sit on the stairs. “Let the meeting begin!” she exclaims, bumping her fist into the air. 

Unaware of any kind of ‘meeting’ you were supposed to attend with a bunch of kids, you lean against the wall and resign yourself to involving yourself as little as possible in this. Being roped into some kids’ game wasn’t on your agenda, but then again, neither was napping on a beach in god-knows-where. Jury’s still out on the “shrunk down to the size of a ten year old” part, since it could’ve just been a trick of the light. Probably. Not gonna think about this until you find a mirror.

“Sora, are you even listening?”

‘ _Sora...?_ ' Is that your codename or something? The silver-haired boy is definitely looking at you, and you realize that you should probably answer him. You weren’t listening whatsoever, so you say “Of course I was listening,” and cough into your weird baby-sized fist. “This is a meeting after all.”

Both the girl and the boy look at you with an expression that means they clearly know you’re lying. Damn, can’t get anything past kids these days. 

“Right,” the boy whose name you already forgot speaks up again, “Then what’s your task for today?” He crosses his arms and the little girl mimics his movement. Staring at you with a smug little smile, he must think he got you. Well, he did get you. You have no fucking idea. 

‘ _...How did I get roped into working for ten year olds?_ ’ Not the first time it happened, but this time you don’t actually remember anything. Your silence apparently speaks volumes since the girl walks over to you and very roughly pokes at your forehead. “I can’t believe you! The raft was even your idea!” she very loudly exclaims at you, very loudly into your very innocent ears. 

“Don’t waste your energy, Kairi. It’s like talking to a brick wall,” the rude boy tells her. You ARE listening! Now. You are now listening. Something about a raft that was supposedly your idea. The context is lost to you, however. 

The girl whose name is apparently ‘Kairi’ takes pity on you and re-explains your ‘task’ for today. “Your job is to get materials for the raft! You know, like, wood and cloth,” she says, apparently having no idea what the ingredients for a raft are. 

“Uh, right,” you manage to say. “I’ll be going then?” 

You swear that you heard the rude boy mutter ‘I don’t know, are you?’ under his breath, but you’re not about to get into a fight with some kid over his admittedly hilarious sense of humor. There will be payback later. 

Making your way out of the shack and out of the sight of your avant-garde employers, you decide to finally look for that mirror. Or any kind of reflective surface, really.

Luckily you seem to be literally surrounded by water, so you make your way towards the ocean and try to get a look at your face. You’ve tried to avoid facing the reality of your now tiny hands very well thus far. What you didn’t expect was to have an entirely different face stare back at you from the water. 

Flinching back from the water like something was about to jump out, you fall onto the sand. Clearly, this was just… another trick of the light. You’re sure that if you look again you will see your actual face this time. 

Slowly making your way towards the water again, you look down and find your not-face again. The face that is not yours. The hair that is definitely not the shade you remember. The eyes that are nothing like your own. 

All right, well, it seems that you are not you, but someone else that is not you. 

“What the _fuck_ ,” you grumble, attempting to wash your face with water before you realize that is _Salty ocean water oh god that was a mistake oh NO._

Trying to stop your not-eyes from burning, you try to recall the last thing you did before you woke up on this island. You were in your room, you were mindlessly going through your phone, and considering you don’t remember anything else, you can most likely assume that you fell asleep like usual. 

So, you’re a ten year old kid now, and if what these other kids called you isn’t a code name, then your name is most likely Sora. 

‘ _That’s… great. Wonderful even. Oh joy._ ’ 

You’re not going to think about this. In fact, you will ignore this until you can find an adult, who might possibly know more than you about potential… body-swapping incidents. ‘ _Oh my god, is a ten year old in my body right now?_ ’

Not thinking about this. You were told to find stuff to build a raft. Unsure on what the others’ tasks are, or even why you’re making a raft in the first place, you decide to collect some driftwood.

  
  


○○○

After a lot of strenuous heaving of driftwood, you think you managed to find enough to make a small weird-looking raft. Next thing on your list should be ‘cloth’, which you guess is supposed to be for a sail? ‘ _Where the hell am I going to find a sail on this island?_ ’ 

You decide that, maybe, it’s a good idea to check out that treehouse thing you’ve been steadily ignoring this whole time. ‘ _Does someone live there?_ ’ Coming to terms with the fact that you’re completely willing to potentially steal from some people, you make your way towards the wooden stairs. 

Despite how sturdy they look, you don’t entirely trust that they’re not about to give out under you, so you basically hug the massive tree trunk trying to make your way up to the treehouse. 

From this far up you can see that there does seem to be a mainland, but absolutely no boats or any other kind of transportation on your island. ‘ _Is that why we’re building a raft? Because we’re stranded?_ ’ You realize that the raft is in no way going to support three kids at once, much less one. 

If anything, you think that a flare of some kind would be much more effective at getting you kids off this island. ‘ _Considering how close we are, someone on the mainland is bound to see it._ ’

Well, the rude boy seems to be in charge, and if he says you’re building a raft then you can’t exactly say no. Especially since it seems to have been ‘your’ idea in the first place. 

‘ _Right..._ my _idea._ ’

Shoving that thought far, far down under, you poke your head into the treehouse and notice a single, lone cloth sitting in a corner. Talk about lucky. Who just conveniently left a fucking sail on a deserted island?

Taking the sail and making your way back down to the shack and your driftwood, you notice three other kids playing on a separate section of the island. ‘ _Oh my god…_ more _stranded kids?!_ ’

You have no idea how six children managed to get stuck here. Long enough to build a massive treehouse, but apparently not long enough to have come up with the idea of making a boat or signal of some kind. ‘ _Well, they ARE kids…_ ’ There also doesn’t seem to be a shipwreck of any kind, although you’ve only been on one side of the island thus far. 

‘ _Can’t just ask them why we’re here, they’ll get on my case about it and I’ll never live it down._ ’ You do briefly consider the option of telling your raft-making companions that you are the most recent victim of a bodyswapper, but you’d rather jump into the ocean than deal with the consequences of that. 

Dropping the cloth on top of your pile of driftwood, you decide to… knock? on the shack’s door. 

Nobody answers, typical. Maybe this is their way of making sure you’re not a vampire. You open the door with a newly found resolve of proving you’re not a bloodsucker and find the inside of the shack empty. You don’t know what you expected.

There seem to be stairs that lead to an upper level, so you slowly climb up and realize there are more stairs. ‘ _Who designed this._ ’ Kids, you mentally reply to yourself, and decide to take the stairs to the right. They lead to a little bridge connected to a separate, smaller island, and you notice that the rude silver-haired boy is there. 

Unsure of where the girl is, you make your way towards him to tell him you’re done with item-hunting. ‘ _Was he just playing with a wooden sword this entire time? While I laboriously hunted down driftwood and got a bunch of splinters?_ ’ Feeling suddenly double-crossed, you now angrily make your way towards the rude kid. 

The second he notices you, he calls out, “Hey, Sora! Slacking off again or did you already find everything?”

“Wha— Slacking off? I already got everything! What were you—”

He cuts you off with a short laugh. “Really? I guess we can go a round or two before Kairi notices then.”

A round? What is he—

Before you can think any further, he throws a second wooden sword at you and _is getting into position to fight._ Oh, god. You’re going to get beat up by a ten year old. 

You might be double this kid’s age and are emotionally more mature than anyone on this island, but you never thought that sword skills would come in handy one day, so, he is, in this regard, much wiser than you. ‘Do you hold swords with one hand or two?’ Deciding to hold it with both hands, you charge at him. 

Without having a chance to even blink, you find yourself flat on your back. ‘ _I guess I know what he’s been doing in his spare time now._ ’ He grins triumphantly at you on the floor. Brat.

“One to zero. Come on, Sora. I thought you were stronger than that.”

Grumbling slightly as you sit up, you glare at him. Easy for him to say when you’re the one who’s been running errands basically all day. There’s a metaphor about worker exploitation in here somewhere. 

You really don’t want another hit to your ego like that, so you leave the sword on the floor and say, “Can we just finish this raft? I’m pretty sure the sun is setting soon.”

He seems a little surprised, but nods as he looks towards the slightly orange-tinged horizon. 

The two of you make your way down the other stairs that you chose to ignore before, and find the red-haired girl sitting amongst some… coconuts?

“Hey, guys! Think these are enough rations for the three of us?”

Remembering the three other kids you saw earlier, you wonder if there must have been a feud that caused you to separate. You can easily imagine there being a dispute over who should be the leader of the newly stranded kids. The silver-haired boy does not seem like he’d give that position over easily. Probably wrecked that other kid with his sword skills. 

“Should be enough. Could you bring the materials over here, Sora?”

You almost forgot that he was referring to _you_ with that name, and nod quickly. Right, you’ll just get the— 

Realization dawns upon you as you remember that the driftwood is big and huge and so, so full of splinters. ‘ _On second thought._ ’ You absolutely do not want to try heaving these logs around again. Facing the two kids you clasp your hands together, “Can you guys help me?”

They look at each other, a little confused, but ultimately agree. Thank god. You don’t know how to feel about having to ask ten year olds for help, but considering that you are now a ten year old yourself, you should all band together and form a union or something. Six tiny hands are better than _two_ tiny hands.

  
  


○○○

You did not expect for the rude kid to just pick up two of those giant logs with one arm, but you aren’t complaining. ‘ _How much does this kid work out?_ ’ A lot, apparently. You and Kairi— you remembered, albeit very late— struggle to carry over one log together, while he just grabs one after the other. 

Convenient, and just goes to show how wise you were to ask for help. You will not think about how a ten year old is stronger than you, original body or not. You will not. 

Once you and Kairi manage to drop off the single log the two of you were carrying, you plop down onto the sand. It’s the other kid’s turn to labour on the raft now, which means you finally get to take a nap. If you’re especially lucky you might wake up in your real body again, and this was all just a _very_ realistic dream. 

Unfortunately, you are interrupted by the girl sitting down next to you, very obviously intending to start a conversation. 

“I can’t wait to leave the islands. What do you think we’ll find out there?”

You grumble slightly and mourn your potential nap-time, and then sit up properly to face her. “Probably more islands?” you say, before you realize that this means they didn’t intend to set out for the mainland. ‘ _Did they already check that place out?_ ’ 

She doesn’t seem satisfied by your answer and huffs a little. “Not like that, dummy. What if we find a giant forest? Or a desert!”

Right, you forgot that these are kids who probably don’t want rational, logical answers to their little adventure roleplay. “Maybe a big castle?” you propose, hoping that she was thinking of something along those lines, but her face falls at your suggestion. Great, somehow you messed that up. ‘ _Does she hate castles or something? Maybe she hates captive princess stories._ ’

Before you can try to cheer her up, she pumps her fists, “Castles are super boring! I hope we never find one. I’d much rather have an adventure, just the three of us.”

Seems like she cheered herself up, which means less awkward attempts at consoling from you. You’re not sure what her problem with castles is, but it’s not like you’re _actually_ going to find one. Honestly, you’re much more concerned about the structural integrity of a raft made from driftwood, built by a kid with no instructions. 

The realization hits you like a sack of bricks— these kids are planning to set out into the wide expanse of the ocean, with a crappy raft, some coconuts, and with absolutely no idea if they’ll even find any land. Oh, god. You have to sabotage this raft. 

Just as you decided to resort to property damage, the silver-haired boy yells out at the two of you, “The raft’s all done!”

Well, maybe you can vandalize it in secret or something. 

Kairi smiles up at him, “Do you think we can already set out, Riku?” 

“Probably—”

“No!” you yell out, causing the other two to stare at you dumbfounded. Ah, shit. “I mean, we should set out in the morning! If we go now then it’ll be nighttime before we find anything.” 

God, you hope this makes sense. You need to vandalize this raft when everyone’s sleeping. And then feign ignorance and cause another dispute between the two groups because they’ll likely blame the other kids. 

Riku nods at your suggestion, “Sora’s right… surprisingly. It’s best if we head out first thing in the morning.”

Relieved at your victory, you fall onto the sand again. Complete disaster averted. Kairi pouts at you, but relents with an annoyed ‘fine’. She might be ungrateful for the fact that you just saved everyone’s lives, but you don’t hold it against her. ‘ _All in a day's work._ ’

Just as you were about to succumb to sweet, sweet nap-oblivion, you hear a voice yell out from the other side of the island. It… does not sound like a kid’s voice. Unless one of the others hit puberty _super_ early. 

“Sounds like it’s time to head back,” Kairi sighs. ‘ _Head back to... where?_ ’

As the three of you make your way to the dock from where the voice sounded, you notice that there’s _an adult man_. Oh, thank god. Adults exist. And apparently, you aren’t stranded? Things are just looking up for you, aren’t they. 

“Did you kids have fun today?” the stranger asks, docking his boat and making way to let you all on board. 

It’s Kairi and one of the kids you saw earlier who respond with a resounding “Yeah!” and jump onto the boat. ‘ _Is this someone’s dad?_ ’

“Thanks for the ride again, Sora’s dad,” the oldest kid of the other trio says as he passes you by. ' _Oh, shit, it's MY dad???_ '

You didn’t think about the possibility of having another family now, so you feel exceedingly confused about how to act in front of this stranger. ‘ _Wait, I can ask him about bodyswappers._ ’ Though, as you glance at the other kids, you realize it’s probably best to wait until later. 

Once everyone has made their way onto the boat, the man that is apparently your dad sets off towards the mainland. “Not gonna beg me to let you steer the boat today, champ?”

You almost didn’t notice that he was asking _you_ , so you quickly shake your head and say, “Uhh, no, it’s been a long day.”

He roughly tousles your hair in a weird attempt of an affectionate gesture and laughs, “Tired yourself all out today, huh?” 

‘ _Ha ha… I want to sleep for twenty years._ ’

The rest of the ride is uneventful, and when you part ways with the kids at the mainland beach and head off into the direction of your _actual house_ , you don’t notice Riku and Kairi looking back at you.

**Author's Note:**

> i love self inserts. theyre fun! self indulgence at its peak. i found this in a folder one day, didnt remember writing this at all, and decided to keep at it. and i figured id post it. unbelievably there arent any SIs for kh?? be the change you want to see in the world
> 
> dont expect it to be updated regularly, i kinda just add onto it every now and then when i feel like it, and i dont exactly have an outline or anything, just vague ideas. 
> 
> any preferences on the type of SI this should be? should they be aware of KH as a series and base their decisions off their Future Knowledge, or not know what KH is, and go through the story with absolutely NO idea what is happening? 
> 
> anyway, tysm for reading some self indulgent fun times!


End file.
